Wish Bus USA all set for the much-awaited debut in Hollywood

Marje Pelayo • October 8, 2018 • 5497

LOS ANGELES, USA – The iconic Wish Bus is all set for its much-awaited debut in Hollywood on October 8 (Monday) local time.

According to resident DJ Robin Nievera, aside from Filipinos, the Wish Bus will also welcome local artists from across the United States to sing on board for their music to be heard and have their Wishclusive videos seen on YouTube.

“We’re also going to find international acts, locale people from here to come on the bus. Anyone is invited on the bus as long as they sing their own songs and bring their flavor to it. Everyone is invited. So we’re going to get a bigger variety of genres, people and personalities on their own, (in) this bus,” he said.

The Filipino original Wish Bus is equipped with state-of-the-art audio and video facilities, an all-automatic technical room and installed with high definition cameras in all angles for that superb audio and video quality.

The “driver’s pit” also has a camera so that the DJ will be able to talk to the driver while on live broadcast as they travel through tourist destinations in a specific location.

To add to the excitement, DJ Robin said the Wish Bus has a lot more surprises in store as it hit the road starting with California and hopefully across states.

“That’s gonna be a surprise. That’s gonna be something that we’re all gonna talk about here on the bus but that’s gonna be something that we’re looking for to do,” he said.

The Wish Bus will have Filipino balladeer Christian Bautista and Los Angeles YouTube singing sensation Karensita on board as the first feature artists for the iconic bus’ pilot broadcast at the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The Wish Bus’ official daily live airing will start at 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time (7:00 a.m. in the Philippines) up to 12 midnight in California.

Kirk Douglas, the cleft-chinned movie star who fought gladiators, cowboys and boxers on the screen and the Hollywood establishment, died on Wednesday (February 5) at the age of 103, his son Michael Douglas said.

“It is with tremendous sadness that my brothers and I announce that Kirk Douglas left us today at the age of 103,” Michael Douglas said in a statement to People magazine and on his Facebook page.

“To the world, he was a legend, an actor from the golden age of movies who lived well into his golden years, a humanitarian whose commitment to justice and the causes he believed in set a standard for all of us to aspire to,” Douglas added.

“Kirk’s life was well lived, and he leaves a legacy in film that will endure for generations to come, and a history as a renowned philanthropist who worked to aid the public and bring peace to the planet,” Michael added, saying he was “so proud” to be his father’s son.

Douglas made more than 90 movies in a career that stretched across seven decades and films such as “Spartacus” and “The Vikings” made him one of the biggest box-office stars of the 1950s and ’60s.

He also played a major role in breaking the Hollywood blacklist – actors, directors and writers who were shunned professionally because of links to the communist movement in the 1950s. Douglas said he was more proud of that than any film he made.

A stroke in 1996 at age 80 left Douglas with slurred speech and damaged facial nerves. But two weeks later he showed his spirit by attending the Academy Awards ceremony to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award. He also continued to take small acting roles through 2008 but said the stroke left him suicidal.

“Humor saved me,” Douglas told Parade magazine in 2014. “At first, I thought my life was at an end. But when I put the gun in my mouth, it hit a tooth. Ow! And that struck me funny. A toothache was stopping me from committing suicide?”

In one of his last public appearances, Douglas was frail and barely audible in a wheelchair as he helped daughter-in-law Catherine Zeta-Jones present the Oscar for best screenplay in January 2018. In November of that year he joined his son Michael

as the younger Douglas was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Douglas had a distinctive chin, razor-sharp cheekbones and a jutting jaw – looks that he passed along to Michael – and that made him a natural for playing all manner of rugged characters.

He also had a demanding nature that earned him a reputation in his prime as the actor who directed directors. Long-time friend and sometime co-star Burt Lancaster loved to introduce him by saying, “Kirk would be the first to admit he is a difficult person. (Pause) I would be the second.”

“I make my own way,” Douglas once told an interviewer. “Nobody’s my boss. Nobody’s ever been my boss … I’ve been a maverick.”

Douglas said playing Vincent van Gogh in “Lust for Life” (1956) was his favorite role but “Spartacus” (1960) was his favorite film because, as producer, he took a big step toward breaking the Hollywood blacklist.

The lifetime Oscar was Douglas’ only Academy Award even though he was nominated for playing ruthless boxer Midge Kelly in “Champion” (1949), a movie executive in “The Bad and the Beautiful” (1952) and van Gogh in “Lust for Life.”

Douglas’ first movie was “The Strange Love of Martha Ivers,” in 1946 after being suggested for the part by acting school classmate Betty Joan Perske, who became famous after changing her name to Lauren Bacall.

Douglas was known for powerful performances as characters who had to endure intense on-screen pain. He was stabbed in “Ace in the Hole,” crucified in “Spartacus,” lost an eye in “The Vikings,” an ear in “Lust for Life,” and a finger in “The Big Sky.”

His other notable movies were “Lonely Are the Brave,” “The Devil’s Disciple,” “Victory at Entebbe” and “Tough Guys,” which he made with Lancaster in 1986.

Douglas’ independent streak led him to set up Bryna Production Co, which he named after his mother, in 1955, snubbing big studio bosses and helping break their monopoly on the industry.

Born Issur Danielovich on Dec. 9, 1916, in Amsterdam, New York, Douglas was the only son of seven children born to illiterate Russian immigrants.

After graduating from high school, he hitch-hiked to St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, where he became a wrestling champion. He also staged and starred in theatrical productions and changed his name to Izzy Demsy.

After St. Lawrence, he graduated from New York’s American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1941 and changed his name to Kirk Douglas. He joined the Navy following two small Broadway roles.

While in the Navy he married British actress Diana Dill and they had two sons, Michael and Joel, before the marriage ended after eight years.

Douglas had a reputation as a Hollywood ladies’ man. Among the lovers listed in the 1988 book “The Ragman’s Son,” one of several books he wrote about his life, were Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Maxwell, Patricia Neal and Gene Tierney.

While making “Act of Love,” Douglas met and Anne Buydens, the film’s publicist, and they married in 1954. Their marriage became one of Hollywood’s most enduring despite his affairs. They had two sons, Peter and Eric.

Douglas, who survived a 1991 helicopter crash that killed two people, tried to discourage his children from following him into acting. Still, Michael became a superstar and a successful producer, Joel and Peter also were producers and Eric was an actor until his 2004 death from a drug overdose.

“You see how they listened to me,” Douglas once said.

Douglas, who grew a long white ponytail in his later years, published several books, including a book of poetry, prose and photographs in 2014 and “Kirk and Anne: Letters of Love, Laughter and a Lifetime in Hollywood,” in 2017 with his wife.

He established the Douglas Foundation for making charitable donations and in 2015 he and Anne announced plans to give away his $80 million fortune to a variety of causes. The beneficiaries included a shelter for homeless women named after Anne, the Los Angeles public school district, St. Lawrence University and hospitals.

To mark his 99th birthday in 2015 he donated $15 million to the Motion Picture and Television Fund to help build a facility for entertainment industry figures with Alzheimer’s disease. (Reuters)

A new breed of OPM singer-songwriters is about to hit the digital space.

On September 29, Wish 107.5 is set to premiere “Wishcovery Originals” on its YouTube channel. Serving as the third edition of the radio station’s online talent search, the show aims to discover and give a platform to aspiring Filipino artists who can both perform and compose their own songs.

“What we’re looking for right now is a singer and composer. We want, this time, the composer to express his feelings through songs that he himself wrote,” Kuya Daniel Razon, the creator of the competition and the main man behind Wish 107.5, remarked in a previous statement.

The first two seasons of the show focused on the singing prowess of the contenders.

Series of Eliminations

Touting a brand-new concept for Wishcovery, Wish 107.5 is on a mission to scout, introduce, and hone promising music makers in the country. It opened its auditions last June and has since received hundreds of entries from singing-songwriting acts online and via the Wish 107.5 Bus.

Out of these hopefuls, only a select few will have the chance to showcase their talent and songs on the competition proper.

After the program’s pilot episode — which is dedicated to giving the audience a walkthrough of what to expect throughout the show’s run — a series of weekly and monthly eliminations will take place.

Every Sunday, four contenders will battle it out on the weekly eliminations, the winners of which will advance to the monthly finals. Featuring a brand-new song for this stage, the top contender will earn a spot in the grand finals and a cash prize worth Php 20,000.

For the weekly battles, the scores will solely come from the panel of judges, which includes Mayonnaise frontman Monty Macalino, the country’s King of R&B Jay R, and veteran hitmaker-producer Jungee Marcelo.

For the monthly eliminations, the judges will only take up 75 percent of the total scores. The remaining 25 percent will come from the power-viewing statistics of the contenders’ Wish Bus performances to be uploaded on a dedicated platform for these videos, the Wishcovery YouTube channel.

Despite this fierce competition, exciting rewards await the grand winner of the show.

As in the previous editions of Wishcovery, Wish 107.5 will give a whopping set of prizes for the show’s grand champion — Php 1 million in cash, a recording contract worth Php 1 million, a brand-new car, and a house and lot.

Follow the journey of aspiring Filipino singer-songwriters and hear new OPM songs on Wishcovery Originals! The show, which will air every Sunday on Wish 107.5’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/wish1075official), will premiere on September 29. Meanwhile, full videos of the contenders’ Wish Bus performances will be available on the Wishcovery YouTube channel (https://bit.ly/2kJ4Oyn).

Hart, 40, was being driven in a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda shortly after midnight on Mulholland Highway when the driver lost control of the car and it tumbled down an embankment, the CHP said in a statement.

CHP did not elaborate on the nature of Hart’s injuries, but TMZ reported that he injured his back.

The driver, Jared Black, also suffered major injuries in the accident, the CHP said. He was not under the influence of alcohol at the time, the CHP added.

Hart, who is known for his stand-up comedy and comic roles in movies including “Ride Along,” was able to leave the scene of the crash with a second passenger, who was not badly hurt, and head to his home nearby to get medical attention, the CHP said.

Hart was eventually taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Center and the driver was taken to another hospital. (Production: Kia Johnson)

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